Dashcam Video From Sandra Bland's Arrest To Be Released Tuesday
CHICAGO (CBS) -- More details could emerge Tuesday into the circumstances leading to the death of a Naperville woman inside a Texas jail cell last week.
Sandra Bland, 28, was arrested July 10, after she was pulled over by a Texas state trooper for failing to signal a lane change, and then allegedly assaulting the trooper in Prairie View, about 50 miles northwest of Houston.
She was found dead three days later in her cell at the Waller County jail. The Waller County Sheriff's Department has said she hanged herself with a plastic trash bag, and the county coroner has ruled her death a suicide, but Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis has said it's "too early to make any kind of determination that this is a suicide or a murder."
"This investigation is still being treated just as it would be a murder investigation," Mathis said. "There are many questions being raised here in Waller County, the state of Texas, and the country, and also around the world about this case. It needs a thorough and exhaustive review."
Mathis has said dashboard camera video showing the arrest will be released Tuesday. He has said the video shows limited views of Brand's encounter with police, but is consistent with the trooper's report. Police have said the trooper planned to give Bland a written warning, but she became combative, and allegedly kicked an officer after she was ordered to exit her vehicle.
"Sandra Bland was very combative," Mathis said. "It was not a model traffic stop ... and it was not a model person that was stopped on a traffic stop. I think the public can make its own determinations as to the behaviors that are seen in the video."
The Texas Department of Public Safety also has said the trooper violated traffic stop procedures, but has not explained how.
Authorities have said the dashcam video will be sent to a grand jury, which will decide if Bland's death was a suicide or homicide.
"I will be taking this matter to the grand jury of Waller County, so that the public can have the final say on this issue," Mathis said.
Bland's supporters, who claim to have seen the dashcam video, have said it shows Bland did not strike police.
"Now the dashcam shows a different report, because we can't see at any point where Miss Bland struck the police officer ," Bryant said.
On Monday, the sheriff's office released a video showing the hallway outside the cell where Bland was held. The motion-activated camera recorded nine-and-a-half minutes of activity in the three hours before she was found dead.
The video shows jail deputies scrambling to Bland's cell the day she died, as well as emergency medical services teams running toward the cell. A separate video from inside the cell shows a trash bin lined with plastic bags, which the sheriff's office says she used to hang herself.
"I want to make clear that the death of Ms. Bland was a tragic incident — not one of criminal intent or a criminal act," said Waller County Sheriff's Capt. Brian Cantrell, head of the department's criminal investigation division.
Bland's family and friends have challenged the coroner's ruling that her death was a suicide, and have hired an independent medical examiner for a new autopsy. They have said results of that autopsy should be available as early as Tuesday.
The family has called for an independent investigation, and the FBI has said it would be monitoring the case.
Bland had been visiting Texas for a job interview at her alma mater, Prairie View A&M University, and was getting ready to start her new job as a college outreach worker. Her family and friends have said it is "unfathomable" that she would commit suicide, and they believe she was killed.
"Behind us was not a suicide, but this is a murder, a homicide," Rev. Jamal Bryant said Monday at a news conference outside the jail.
Cell phone video of Bland's arrest shows troopers standing over her as she's on the ground. That video does not show how she ended up on the ground, but she can be heard yelling at officers, accusing them of using excessive force.
"You just slammed my head into the ground. Do you not even care about that? I can't even hear!" she said. "For a traffic signal, slam me into the ground, and everything!"
Authorities also were hoping to gather information from Bland's cell phone. They have said she might have been recording the traffic stop that led to her arrest.
